


Reading Rainbow

by wordbending



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, short silly fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-16 01:23:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9267488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordbending/pseuds/wordbending
Summary: Alphys and Undyne read a book together.Out loud, in front of a dozen excited children. Undyne is, after all, a librarian.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nagginggargoyle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagginggargoyle/gifts).



> Requested by nagginggargoyle for the [acts of intimacy meme](http://wordbending.tumblr.com/post/154037608037/nonsexual-acts-of-intimacy-select-from-the) \- "reading a book together"!

Carefully, as if afraid it'd decide to slam shut right in her face, Alphys pushed open the door to the library - not the _librarby_ , it was worth noting. The monsters had made sure to get that right this time.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she poked her snout into the doorframe and the entire library didn't turn around and annihilate her in a single shared stare of disdain.

In fact, nobody seemed to notice her at all. Even Undyne, who wasn't behind the front desk like usual but seated on a rickety wooden chair in front of the entrance, didn't notice her. She didn't as much as glance up from the over a dozen children, seating cross-legged or many-legged or hanging from the ceiling or too tiny to see more than the pillows they were seated on, staring rapturously up (or down) at her.

So Alphys stood awkwardly in the doorway, refusing to even let the chilly winter air outside move her forward. She just stood there and quietly admired how Undyne looked with her bright red hair tied back into a bun, even though the effect was somewhat dampered by the silliness of her wearing reading glasses over her eyepatch. She didn't even have vision problems, outside of the obvious one.

But eventually, Undyne's eye, that surprisingly soft, gentle yellow eye, turned up just long enough to meet hers. Undyne stopped whatever she had been saying, her eye widening, and Alphys couldn't keep herself from swallowing back a breath as she stared back at her.

"Alphys?!?" Undyne yelped, bolting upright so quickly that the book that had been in her lap flew out of it and landed in front of a monster child who stared down at it with their four serpentine heads. Every other child, human and monster alike, turned to stare at Alphys, an uneven number of eyes in a disparity of sizes, and Alphys clutched the strap of her purse tightly.

"Shhhh!" said a monster seated at another table, a cat with heavy makeup and her hair in a bun.

"My bad!" Undyne whisper-yelled back, cupping her hands over her mouth.

Twisting the strap of her purse into knots, Alphys took the moment to take a step back through the door, looking away from all the eyes staring at her curiously.

"A-ah, I'm s-s-sorry, I'm... clearly, clearly interrupting. I'll just... go."

But Alphys heard footsteps coming toward her, so she looked back up, way up, at Undyne, striding towards her with an expression somewhere between concern and a grimace - that expression when Alphys had done or said something _wrong_ , and Undyne would start stepping carefully around her as if she was made of glass.

Alphys noticed that the four-headed monster child had picked up the book in one of their mouths. Without even as much as looking away from Alphys, much less breaking her stride, Undyne passed by them, gently took the book from between their fangs, and rustled their hair, all in one step.

And then Undyne was towering over Alphys, the grimace on her face replaced with a fin-splitting grin. And with her hair in that bun and those glasses and the very... form-fitting... black suit and tie she had on, well, Alphys suddenly felt even smaller next to her than she actually was.

"Nah, you don't gotta go anywhere!" Undyne whispered, one hand on her hip, and it was only Undyne's voice that snapped Alphys back into reality. "I was just surprised to see you, that's all... but, you know, I'm really glad you're here!"

"W-well, I... I heard you were w-working today, so I... came to visit?" Alphys shrugged, averting her gaze while she continued to play with her purse strap. "But you're... wait. W-why are you glad I'm here?"

"Because now you can read with me!"

Alphys didn't get a chance to squeak out a "what?" before Undyne, with as much warning as she tended to give for anything, wrapped her free arm around her waist and easily plucked her off the ground.

Alphys couldn't be bothered to struggle. She just laid in the crook of Undyne's arm, buried her face in her hands, and mumbled that she wished Undyne would at least let her agree to these things first. After a moment, she felt Undyne flop down into the chair she had been sitting on and then she was being... sat onto Undyne's lap. One of Undyne's arms was wrapped around her stomach, holding her close, pressing her against Undyne's chest.

Alphys was suddenly glad her hands were already covering her very warm face. She couldn't even bring herself to care that, in this position, she was sitting on her own tail.

"Sorry about that!" said Undyne. Alphys felt her shift beneath her, and she peeked out from between her fingers to see Undyne waving at the kids in front of them. Fortunately, that seemed to get their attention, and Alphys relaxed a little when she saw them all staring at Undyne instead of at her. "I just had to get my assistant, Dr. Alphys!"

The audience _ooh_ ed.

"Your girlfriend?!" said a child's voice.

The audience _ooh_ ed even louder, staring right back at Alphys again. So much for not being the center of attention.

Alphys felt Undyne shift again as she started to scratch the back of her head. Looking up at her, she could see her cheeks were a deep shade of green.

"W-well... I mean..."

A chorus of children spoke over her, their voices just barely hushed, before she could say another word.

"You talk about her allllllll the time!"

"Yeah, yeah! And you're, like, 'I can't wait to see her today! Nggaaah!'"

"You've called her your girlfriend before! In no uncertain terms!"

Alphys watched Undyne stiffen, her blue skin turning greener and greener, and she took a breath and steeled herself before reaching up and patting Undyne's cheek.

"Undyne? I-it's OK. I don't mind."

Undyne looked down, her golden-yellow eye staring down at Alphys, and she grinned. It wasn't the fin-to-fin grin she usually had, but one that looked more like she wasn't really sure why she had started grinning at all.

Alphys looked out at the children, her tail flicking back and forth over the side of the chair.

"H-hi," she said, just barely raising a hand. "I'm the girlfriend."

The audience didn't exactly explode into cheers, apparently retaining some awareness that they were in a library, but they did all speak at once, "hiya"s and "nice to meet you"s and "howdy"s and one "I knew it!"

Alphys looked up at Undyne again.

"So what are we reading?"

Undyne's grin widened. With a dramatic _ahem_ , she flipped open the book in front of her to a pastel drawing of a green lizard-like monster in a red and white striped dress. They were crying.

"So, as I was saying..." said Undyne, leaning forward conspiratorially. "Poor Mel didn't get any letters for Valentine's Day! It sucked!!!"

"It doesn't actually say 'it sucked," Alphys added. "I-in the book, I mean."

"It totally does suck though!"

"Yeah. I-it totally does suck," Alphys agreed. She still remembered when she could have related very strongly with this lonely children's book lizard.

"So anyway, Mel is really upset, right?" Undyne continued. "So they get really mad, and they start stomping around, and they yell..."

"If nobody wants to be my friend," said Alphys, in a high-pitched, nasally voice. "Then I'll beat up everybody instead! Roooooooar!"

The children gasped. Alphys looked up from the book back at Undyne, who gave her an encouraging thumbs up.

"...H-hey, wait a second," Alphys whispered, squinting at her. "This book doesn't end with Mel getting a nerdy fish girlfriend, does it?"

"I don't know!" Undyne replied. "But I hope so! That sounds awesome!!!"


End file.
